Change Your Thoughts Change Your Life by Dr. Wayne Dyer – Book Summary

Five centuries before the birth of Christ, a God-realized man called Lao-Tze in ancient China spoke eighty-one verses. These are considered by many to explain the very nature of our existence.

The masterpiece text is called the Tao Te Ching. It offers guidance that is unbiased, ethical and spiritual.

In this book, Dr. Wayne Dyer has examined hundreds of translations of the text and written eighty-one diverse essays on how to use the ancient wisdom of Lao-Tze in our world today.

Each chapter is intended to help you live ‘the great way’ today.

The book is designed for you to read slowly, one essay each day. What follows is a book summary of Change Your Thoughts Change your Life by Dr. Wayne Dyer.

1.Living the Mystery

The Tao is a paradox, in that it is named and nameless. It is the invisible realm from which everything originates and at the same time it is invisibly in all that is. Lao-Tze calls our outer world of form “10,000 things”

We are told to pay attention to the way our body feels and notice where we are on the scale between trying (desiring) and doing (allowing).

The aim is to recognize the different way your body feels between the two points and then to notice the natural sensation of the latter.

Firstly you need to enjoy the mystery by just letting the world happen without always trying to work out why, just allow everything and everyone, to be as it or they are.

Learn to observe, listen more and judge less. Let go of the need to name and label everything.

The Tao says we must relax in the splendor of what is seen and sensed.

Today’s Tao:

If a person or situation irritates you today, use this as an opportunity to practice the Tao. Look inside and consider where you are on the scale between desire and allowing.

Although you would like this irritant to vanish, allow it to be, become tolerant and really notice this feeling it in your body, accept it without judging.

2.Living the Paradoxical Unity

Do you realize that you have to identify something as ugly before you can call something beautiful? The Tao does not have this viewpoint and instead asks you look at everything as a part of the perfect whole. Life and death are the same.

Virtue and sin are only judgments, which need both to discover the other. The body has physical boundaries, yet it also includes something that has no limitation or substance and is never-ending and formless.

Live a united life for there is no need to classify everything as good or bad, right or wrong. These are standards of the physical world, not the Tao.

hen your time comes to leave your body, you go back to your place in the wholesome mys­tery of oneness.

Effort and non-effort are both parts of the whole. When you combine the two things you have effortless action without being emotionally involved to the outcome. Merge the supposed opposites into the oneness of being without fear or judgment. Just be.

Today’s Tao:

Today, when you find the need to defend or justify yourself, practice the Tao by turning within choosing not to. Instead, feel how this misunderstanding feels in your body. Just feel what is, without trying to be right or wrong.

3.Living Contentment

Reorganize your priorities to ensure happiness. When you desire money or power, these things control you and blind you to your relationship with the eternal Tao.

This is the ego’s way, the Tao tells us to be grateful for what you have and ask how you can serve. Encourage others to change their thoughts as well to help them see major changes in their lives as well.

You need to remind yourself each day that there is no way to find happiness because happiness is the way. There is no need to push your self; desires only bring anxiety and stress.

When you are in harmony with the Tao, contentment flows into your life, as does everything else you could ever wish for.

All you need to do is trust in the rightness of the eternal Tao. It is the fundamental source of the 10,000 things.

It can take care of everything. Just say what you want and hand it over to the un-nameable. Trust you will get what you want.

Today’s Tao:

If you are planning to buy something today, practice the Tao and listen for guidance. The Tao will show you the way; all you have to do is trust it.

4.Living Infinitely

You tap into the Tao by being guided by the infinite part of yourself by developing and absolute knowing that whatever help you need is right here and right now. It is empty, yet very much at hand. It is at the back, in front, above, and below you.

Use the viewpoint of the eternal Tao to look at your problems. There is no shortage from this perspective as you are connected to a never-ending supply.

Affirm: “All I need now is here and actions will follow”.

If you look at your life through the keyhole of an infinite observer, fears, anxieties, and resistance merge into the eternal mix.

Remember you are part of an eternal truth.

Today’s Tao:

Instead of reacting to a situation today be silent and listen to your thoughts if your ego tries to judge, just observe. Make a copy of this advice from Nisar­gadatta Maharaja and pin it up somewhere and read it daily.

“Wisdom is knowing I am nothing, love is knowing I am everything, and between the two my life moves. And while you’re living, stay as close to love as you can.”

5.Living Impartially

The Tao, like heaven and earth is impartial and it is the source of everything. Even you choose to harmonize your internal and external consciousness, you realize the true self that you are.

In this way you live life impartially, not believing one person deserves more than the other.

The more you are aware of this unbiased Source, the more it becomes available to you. You can’t use it all up as you simply receive more. On the other hand if you hoard and fear scarcity, then you will experience this.

When thoughts exclude others, you’ve chosen to see yourself as “special” and as so deserving of special favor from your Source of being.

The minute you do this you have lifted your self-importance above those who you think are less deserving and you will lose your connection to the Tao.

Today’s Tao:

In all your interactions with others today, be impartial, open and fair. Trust and allow the Tao to guide you reactions.

6.Living Creatively

Be aware of an eternal force that constantly gives birth to new life. You have the ability to use this limitless field and co­-create. Your awareness, through practicing the Tao, allows participation and new perspective on your life.

Be aware that you are a Divine creation born of the Tao, not your parents, when you are connected to this source; you offer the world your true intellect, genius, and behaviors by co-creating with your very essence.

Apply individuality to all you do by being creative in your thoughts, feelings, and actions. This means ignoring criticism or judgment and trusting your inner calling instead.

Today’s Tao:

Today as you look at babies and young children, notice the inexplicable feminine nature in little boys and girls who are not yet in sync with cultural and societal demands and so their true selves are not yet hidden. Consider their connection to the Tao.

7.Living Beyond Ego

The secret of the indescribable nature of the eternal Tao is that it isn’t recognized with possessions. The Tao is a charitable organization that never runs out and asks for nothing in return.

It can never die as immortality and giving go hand in hand. The ego on the other hand is a self-centered force that’s never satisfied.

Try to reverse ego’s clutch on you by doing the Tao and serving the needs of others. The Tao says that then all your own needs will be fulfilled.

When you listen to the ego, you will never feel whole. Reaching out and connecting to the Tao activates a loving energy.

Stop pursing your desires and be a witness. When you let go, you let God.

Today’s Tao:

Watch out today for the ego’s demands and try to defuse as many as you can.

8.Living in the Flow

According to the teachings of Lao-Tze, water and the Tao are the same. It is has an unexplained magical nature. Let your life flow as water does by allowing others to be free to flow and live their own life.

Be receptive to everyone and do not consider yourself more important than anyone else. Keep yourself open to those less fortunate, show kindness, acceptance and gentleness and look for the Tao in all people.

When you stop controlling others you’ll be in peace and harmony with the natural order of the Tao. Allow your thoughts to float freely.

Today’s Tao:

Drink water silently today, reminding yourself with each sip to nurture others in the same life abounding way that streams give to the animals and rain provides to the plants.

Be grateful for this life-sustaining, ever flowing substance.

9.Living Humility

The Tao has no need to demonstrate its endless capability and knows exactly when there is enough. We cram our lives with activities and possessions, even when we no longer need them, which indicate our harmony with the ego, not the Tao.

Lao-Tze advises us to be satisfied at a level that encourages living with humility. If you desire fame and wealth you need know when to halt the process and be like the Tao.

This is the way of heaven, not the world we live in, which is addicted to more.

Learn “enough is enough” Practice humility rather than flamboyance and wild expenditure. Eat, but stop when you’re had enough. When you over fill yourself with anything it is a false symbol of success.

Instead align with the accomplishment of the eternal Tao. Seek pleasure in what you are doing, rather than how the ego sees the benefits.

Today’s Tao:

The next time you eat, try to practice controlling how much you eat by asking yourself after a few mouthfuls if you are still hungry. Stop and wait a while and if you don’t feel hungry, call it a day.

The Tao says, “Retire when the eating is done; this is the way of heaven.”

10.Living Oneness

Our source cannot be divided, yet we’re in a world that all too often seems to decline the perfect oneness that is the Tao. You can live the Tao by suspending our idea of opposites and reactivating our consciousness of its unity.

In other words, you can give up ego and be in this world, but not of it.
Instead of judging others as different or separate, see them as an extension of your self.

This lessens your self-importance and allows you to sense the oneness you share with everyone else.

Enjoy your possessions without being attached to them. In reality you own nothing or no one. Step back and allow yourself to observe this world of form.

Today’s Tao:

In your life today, practice seeing oneness where you previously saw separation. Notice that the same invisible energy beating in your heart, beats in the heart of everyone else as well and this that also allows you to think does the same for every being alive today.

11.Living from the Void

This chapter invites you to live from the invisible void that’s at the center of your being. Take note of your body as well as the invisibles essence, the Tao part, which your existence depends upon.

Keep your attention on the thoughts that materialize from your inner self, as these are pure love and kindness. This isn’t a separate part of you, allow the thoughts to enter your body and then leave. Allow and let go.

Use meditation to help you perform the power of silence each day. This invites your essence to show itself and lets you to live in the void.

Today’s Tao:

Take fifteen minutes today living in the void (center) that is you. Totally ignore your body and surroundings and work on making friends with this “what is not” part of you.

12.Living with Inner Conviction

Here we are reminded that we give too much attention to our five senses at the cost of our inner vision we cannot know the creator if we’re only paying attention to what’s been created.

Likewise, we lose our own creativity when we’re not aware of what’s behind all acts of creation.

Those who live their lives by the Tao are known as master, sage, an enlightened being.

They spend time watching the world but not identifying totally with what’s visible; being in the world, while at the same time aware of not being of this world.

Expand your viewpoint beyond your five senses. When you look at all of life from a transcendent viewpoint. You’ll be less likely to join the chase and more likely to live from the inner conviction that your true essence is not of this world. Stop pushing yourself to constantly hoard more.

Today’s Tao:

Today, plant a seed and grow it. Write down what’s within the bud, gaze in wonder at what’s in the seed will grow into a flower, extent the same admiration to yourself and use this as a reminder of your invisible inner self.

13.Living with an Independent Mind

It is important to remain free from the opinions of others (both negative and positive) if you value their opinions more than our own you will be miserable as tailing status stops the natural flow of Divine energy to your independent mind.

The Tao lets things work in their own way to produce results naturally. Trust your own inner nature and remember you are more than your body and their opinions are probably not taking this into account.

Affirm the following, “I am a guardian of the world and I am fit to be a teacher in this world.”

Today’s Tao:

Ask yourself, “What’s my own nature if I have no outside forces telling me who or what I should be? Act on the answer – Today.

14.Living Beyond Form

This verse explains how tapping into the untouchable, invisible, immeasurable force enables you to gain harmony, by being connected to oneness.

When you abandon your ego, you regain the almost magical powers of your eternal source of being and live beyond the world of form.

Use the practice of walking meditation to obtain knowledge of the absolute. Be aware of the eternal principle that gives all life. When you see God in everyone you meet and in all you identify with in your ego based world, you become more like him.

Develop your vision by looking further than what your eyes see. Ask yourself what is the true essence of what my eyes reveal to me.

Marvel over the something that brings a tree to life in the springtime. Question what lies beyond everything you see.

Today’s Tao:

Observe that it is the same principal behind the invisibleness of a cloud, mountain or tree as in your own body. It is this principal that causes your heart to beat and your lungs to expand.

15.Living an Unhurried Life

Lao-Tze uses this verse to speak of the ancient masters who had an intense level of cooperation with their world. You originate from the stillness where all creation comes from.

Allow your mind to flow with life and formed by the eternal forces of the Tao. See yourself as alert, yet easy going and confidant, yielding, yet willing to be still and watchful, yet calm and peaceful.

Stop running after dreams and let them come to you. If you meditate daily, there is no need to hurry anything. Trust the Tao to work for you. In this way you will master your life in the way of the Tao.

Stop stressing and get in the flow of life and let yourself go gently down its stream.

Today’s Tao:

Sit quietly for the next ten minutes and contemplate all that you have and all that is flowing through your life. Give thanks to what makes your life unfold so rightly and release all hurried thoughts.

16.Living with Constancy

Rather than seeing change as a troublesome, unwanted happening, you can choose to consider the variances in your world as important influences in the cycle of a Tao-centered life.

All things come, and go. Accept this nature of recurring change and you’ll thrive. When you transform the way you look at things, the things you look at transform!

All endings are cyclical. If an ending is causing you misery, take time to become an unbiased observer of life.

Write these words and post them in an eye-catching place in your home, “This too shall pass.” You can count on it.

Today’s Tao:

Devote a day to deliberately looking for situations to practice impar­tially observing endings as beginnings, challenging your self to find a small number by noon.

Start in the morning by noticing that the end of asleep is the beginning of awake. Don’t judge, just notice the endings, which make space for beginnings.

Notice also that feeling sad is an ending that changes into a beginning.

17.Living as an Enlightened Leader

This verse is directed towards parents, teachers and all leaders. The Tao recommends, in order to become an enlightened leader, you need to stay in the background and become a shrewd observer, even leaving the room to allow everyone else to act without having the need to make an impression on you.

You need to be able to defer your desire to be seen as a figure of authority and encourage others to in charge and do the right thing.

You can also resolve conflicts through trust, love and praise of others. In place of thinking that you know what’s best for others, trust that they know what’s best for them selves. Step back and then offer praise when they make their own decisions.

Pride yourself in not taking credit for the success of others. Share in their happiness and pride. Just be there to serve without wanting anything in return.

Today’s Tao:

Pick a situation with someone you supervise and instead of interfering as you might previously have done, frown, nod, smile or gesture without speaking.

18.Living Without Rules

When you choose to see yourself as harmonious with the laws and regulations of government, family and religion, your life will change.

Rules are formed to inflict penalties to manage or govern people who haven’t learned their individual accountability as a part of the wholeness of the group.

The Tao oneness is superior to any group on Earth. When you have a Tao-centered heart, you don’t need any rules.

The Tao tells you to be genuine in all your relations because acting virtuous is not the same as being virtuous. Be kind to others because this is what you inner calling demands, not because some law says you should be.

Today’s Tao:

Highlight why you’re abiding by human made laws today. Spend some time relating to the basic reason for stopping at a red light, having a driver’s license, paying to enter a cinema or not drinking and driving etc.

Observe whether your ego like breaking rule and then identify the most important rules of your heart.

19.Living Without Attachment

Here we are told to surrender wisdom, sainthood, justice, morality, profit and industry and all will be well.

Within you lies a piece of God that automatically knows what to do and how to be, Lao-Tze advises, Trust yourself and re-examine the crucial importance of educational and religious institutions.

When you alter how you see them, you’ll notice that the true essence of you

Look at how you see your relationship to systems of justice, business and education. You are not moral and ethical just because you comply with the laws, you are morality itself because you are the same as what you came from.

Don’t calculate your worth by how much you have accumulated and what you earn.

Instead choose to share and you will be surprised how good you feel living without attachment to the idea that success comes from making money.

The less you focus on making money the more will flow to you.

Today’s Tao:

Put this affirmation where you can constantly see it, “I am moral, profitable, and a genius extraordinaire, regardless of what any in­stitutional transcript or bank statement says.”

20.Living Without Striving

Here you are encouraged to simplify life and experience it free from striving, to fill up each moment with hope of being somewhere else. Being here now in your life, for then it will become precisely what you need in order to be happy.

In other words, you can change how you look at striving and have happiness without worry and fear.

Practice allowing yourself to bond with the perfection of the universe you live in. that’s all you need to do to be happy, everything else is provided for you, right here and now.

Affirm: “Everything is perfect as God overlooks no one and his love is everywhere, I trust this force to guide me and I am not letting ego to enter now.” Repeat these word again and again and take time each day to “let go and let God”

Today’s Tao:

Take the time to notice situations you’re motivated to complete or reach something for a future benefit as at these times you’re not in the moment.

21.Living the Elusive Paradox

In this lesson, we are asked to become conscious of the hard to pin down nature of the Tao and to also confirm this awareness by identifying ourselves as examples of this elusive paradox.

Think about what allows you to lift your arms, move your toes and to see shapes and colors.

Think about what formless energy signals a vibration in your ear, which gives rise to sound and enables you to recognize that the sky is blue.

This is what Lao-Tze calls the “breath or all things.”

Have a voracious thirst for the elusive and mysterious force that supports all life. Meditate on its sacredness and ask for guidance. Repeat this daily, “Thank You, God, for everything.”

Learn by heart the two lines that follow and silently narrate them when needed.
“O someone should start laughing!

Someone should start wildly laughing-Now!”

Today’s Tao:

Here the author suggests using a meditation from his book “Getting in the Gap” to stay in the gap for five minutes and notice the Source that allows you to touch, speak, hear and move.

22.Living with Flexibility

Sense the oneness of the Tao that supplies your flexibility the trials and tribulations of life. Look for times you can choose to weather a storm by letting it to blow through without a fight. By just relaxing and going with all that challenges you, you enter “the Tao time.”

When you Change the way you see the storms of your life and let go of having to win an argument or the need to be right others will recognize themselves in your accommodating nature, and they’ll trust you.

Affirm: “I have no rigid­ity within me. I can bend to any wind and remain unbroken. I will use the strength of the wind to make me even stronger and better preserved”.

Today’s Tao:

Today listen to someone’s apposing opinion and instead of giving your opinion, remark, “I’ve never considered that point of view. Thank you for sharing your ideas with me.”

23.Living Naturally

The teachings here show you always have a choice and invite you to stop in the middle of discord and remember that peace and calm are on the way.

Observe nature’s way, see how storms and hurricanes are temporary and pass instead of seeing them as devastating. Trust in your ability to respond naturally to circumstances in your life.

Affirm: This is a temporary setback. I do not need to be in control.

Today’s Tao:

Spend all day observing nature and its countless cycles. Find at least three ways that you can respond more naturally in your life. Find your symbolic images and invite the corresponding item in the Tao to blossom within you.

24.Living Without Excess

The natural flow of the Tao asks nothing of you and it gives us limitless air, food, water, beauty sunshine, and land.

It is a beneficial patron for us all, and it asks nothing in return and has no need to boast of its achievements. We are advised to walk our path in the same way, free from desires to seek approval and brag.

You can change your life by choosing to be grateful. Practice silently repeating “I thank you” Do this throughout your wak­ing hours, as you fall asleep and when you awaken. Give thanks for everything.

Today’s Tao:
Tomorrow morning, surprise someone by expressing your kindness.

25.Living from Greatness

Here you are asked to appreciate there’s a pure, timeless energy within everything on the planet that is uncontaminated by the solid appearance of form and invited to change the way you live and to see the life you’re living change, by tapping into this greatness.

Know that you are not the body you occupy and trust in your own greatness, as this is the greatness that creates all life and look for beliefs that deny your standing as a being of greatness.

The paradox is that you can be greatness and be nobody, at the same time.

Today’s Tao:

Copy these words and relate to them: “ I came from greatness. I must be like what I came from. I will never abandon my belief in my greatness and the greatness of others.”

???? Get Dr. Wayne Dyer’s Change Your Thoughts Change Your Life Audio Book – Click Here To Get It FREE

26.Living Calmly

Here you are directed to keep a sense of serenity whatever may be happening around you. This means there’s no need to blame others for how you feel and will own your feelings and ac­tions. The solution for a life of chaos is choosing stillness.

Don’t think about what is happening around you, find the calm center of yourself, take a few deep breaths and empty your mind of judgments. You have the inborn ability to choose serenity in circumstances that drive others to madness.

Write a statement that no one can make you lose touch with your root. Affirm: “I have the ability to stay poised and centered, regardless of what goes before me.”

Today’s Tao:

Sit in a quiet place and picture the person, who you have been at odds with for a longtime, sitting in front of you. Say aloud to him or her, “I forgive you. I surround you with love and light, and I do the same for myself.”

27.Living by Your Inner Light

Here we are advised to trust, “The door … though having no lock, cannot be opened.” Belongings are safe with those who live by an inner light, stealing isn’t the way of truth, and so it’s pointless to lock anything up.

When you develop a trust in the Tao, you’ll transform the way you look at life.

The most enlightening lines of this verse remind you that a good man is but a bad man’s teacher, and a bad man is but a good man’s job.

Don’t judge yourself or others as bad but develop and inner code of conduct and trust in your self to live by this standard.

Today’s Tao:

Find one person considered “bad,” and do one thing for them as a “good” person today.

28.Living Virtuously

We all have an inbuilt capacity to spark colossal changes that can lead to the tranquility, harmony, and peace that are our heritage. Lao-tzu calls this preserving our “original qualities.” Living virtuously is what you do when you are allowing the Tao to guide you.

“Be a valley under heaven”– Be humble
“Be the pattern of the world” – Dismiss ego and change how you look at the world.
“Act in accord with eternal power”- It is always there, an endless geyser gushing forth the abundant life of virtue.
“Preserve your original qualities” – your essence before you became a human.

In other words, living virtuously has nothing to do with obeying laws, being a good citizen, or fulfilling some externally in­spired idea of who you’re meant to become.

Entertain the exact opposite of what you’ve been taught to believe and exchange all negativity with love.

Today’s Tao:

Be childlike at least once a day. For example, find a spider­s web and just gaze at the miracle before you: a tiny little creature spinning a perfect net bigger than it is in order to catch airborne bugs for dinner … wow!

29.Living by Natural Law

This verse speaks of a natural law that’s untouched by ego. It gives the message that you are not in charge and that you never have been, nor never will be.

So advises you to let go of any notion you have about con­trolling anything or anyone, including yourself. Recognize that every moment of your life is in agreement with the Divine Tao.

When you do this you will shift judgment and possible anger to gratefulness.

Give up needing to control by allowing your world and everyone in it to do as they are intended to do. Step back and be a witness rather than a central character.

Invite Divine natural order in by simply allowing what is happening to go forward without criticism or control; in this way, you move to the center.

Be aware that there’s a time for everything, for this frees you from the demanding ego. There is a time for loss, fear, anger, pain and even hatred and soon there will be a time for peace, comfort and love.

Today’s Tao:

Find a place where control is very strong and reject it today. Suppress your inclination to interfere.

30.Living without Force

When you make war in your personal life, it produces a lack of love, kindness, and joy, which leaves you and everyone around you stripped of Divine Motherhood. Lao-Tze is asking you not to force for settling disputes.

Do away with verbal and/or physical force in all situations. If feel you had no other choice than to use violence to defend yourself and those you love, right away retreat to a position that doesn’t allow for arrogance and self-congratulation.

Decline to take part in violent actions in any way. This includes listening to TV or radio reports or even reading newspaper articles about the uses of force taking place all over the planet.

By refusing to allow such energy into your life, even as an onlooker you keep yourself in step with the Way.

Today’s Tao:

Today when you watch television or listen to the radio and it presents violence, change the channel to increase your no tolerance policy.

31.Living Without Weapons

The 31st verse of the clearly states that tools of violence serve evil. The Tao is about life; weap­ons are about death. There’s no win in any action where kill­ing takes place.

Why?

Because all people, in spite of their geo­graphic location or belief system, are related to each other by their originating spirit. We all come from, retain, and return to the Tao.

Begin to see the use of physical or verbal weapons as unnecessary responses. Don’t use weapons of violence in any form by noticing your language and abolishing hatred from your vocabulary.

When enough of us reach a critical mass in our thinking so that it disallows the existence of weapons, we’ll be moving the direction of our world.

Distance yourself from as many images of death as possible, in­cluding watching movies or TV shows that show killing as a form of entertainment, along with news reports that highlight the ex­tinguishing of life.

Teach children not to take pleasure in the death of so-called enemies, terrorists, or rebels.

Do the Tao Now:

Today, whenever you hear or read about someone who has been killed by a weapon, say a private prayer for him or her, no matter what his or her geographical position.

32.Living the Perfect Goodness of the Tao

When we’re able to live and breathe the perfect goodness that is the Tao, wars, famine and disagreements come to an end.

Take notice of anything that’s directing you toward activities that truly ignite your passion. Recognize the Tao energy flowing through your life and quit fighting your calling.

Pay attention to the flow of your life by letting go and seeing where you’re directed.

Notice the “strange coincidences” that seem to join forces with fate and in some way guide you in a new direction. Keep track of situations that occur without warning or out of the realm of your control.

Look for a new, blissful feeling within you; this is the Tao flowing through you.

Today’s Tao:

Sometime today between noon and four in the afternoon, pick a time to intentionally free your mind from trying to control the events of your life. Go for a walk and simply let yourself be carried along, go where your feet take you.

Notice every thing around you, your breath, the sounds you hear etc, just go with the flow.

33.Living -Self-Mastery

Here you are invited to assess your level of self-mastery by turning your gaze inward and seeing the world, and how you fit in it, in a new light. Control over others is exchanged for an inner strength that allows you to behave from a wisdom that is essentially the Tao.

As you change your thinking so your world will change. When you understand that you are accountable for your reactions in any given moment, others no longer have any control over you.

Focus on accepting yourself in place of blaming others. It’s important to avoid blame and even your desire to under­stand the other person; when you take responsibility for how you choose to react; you’re aligning with the Tao.

Cultivate your desire for others to learn the Tao in their lives. Ego thinks that others are unable to run their own lives and wants to direct with force, so show your inner strength by stopping such tactics.

Today’s Tao:

Consciously initiate a con­versation with someone who usually causes you stress, that in-law, ex-spouse or bullying co-worker etc and invite the Tao to flow freely.

34.Living the Great Way

Here you are asked to re-examine how you see greatness. Usually we judge this on how much fame and fortune that a person builds up in his or her life­time or someone who stands out from the crowd for making the world a better place.

However this verse describes greatness as not being interested in fame or asking for

Stop deciding what anyone else should or shouldn’t be doing and allow others to make their own choices.

Listen rather than talk about. Notice people who give much, care for others without bragging, and decline gratitude or credit, and put them in your greatness file. Push yourself to be like this.

Today’s Tao:

Decide to spend a day looking for several people who fit this model and silently communicate to them that you sense their greatness as an unfolding of the Tao.

No­tice how your relations with them change when you’re not making judgments based on their age or sex etc.

35.Living Beyond Worldly Pleasures

Pleasure is usually described as something experienced by the senses and accessible here in the world of form, a meal, music etc. Problems can occur, when such hobbies become the main focus of life. Ad­dictions of every kind are some of the adverse results.

All addictions shout out this depressing message: “You’ll never, ever get enough of what you don’t want.” On the other hand the Source is always available and can never be depleted.

Notice the eternal bliss that’s always with you ­even when the delicacies are out of sight! Acknowledge that addictions to worldly pleasures are attempts to transcend the physical, which can’t happen unless you tap into your natural connection to the Tao.

Introduce transcendent thankfulness to your everyday life. Open yourself to the limitless love and abundance of the Tao and you’ll magnetize more of that same love and abundance to you.

Today’s Tao:

Fast for twenty-four hours. When you feel hungry, be grateful for the eternal force, which is always with you. Let you body know it will have food when the fast is over, and then switch to the Tao self that’s unaware of hunger.

Enjoy the different nature of the Tao self by focusing on finding its blissful energy flowing through your body. Distinguish between how this feels compared with worldly pleasures.

36.Living in Obscurity

When you alter the way you think about your place in the great scheme of things, you’ll notice that “the wisdom of obscu­rity” allow you to remove competition from your life and withdraw into quiet strength.

Feeling belittled means that you must know what it’s like to be important; the idea of being weak grows out of having known what it’s like to feel strong.

Strive to know oneness by seeking consciousness of opposites. Be familiar with the opposing feeling so that you can know both of them at the same time.

Withdraw yourself and allow others. Draw little or no interest in yourself, and don’t ask to be accepted. Instead, allow, allow, allow.

Today’s Tao:

Make a commitment to be interested in others today by suppressing any inclination to compare you to anyone else.

37.Living in Simplicity

Alter the way you think about the whole idea of success and power, for this isn’t the result of obsessive accomplishment and always following directions. Start living in a world that you know works far better with less interfering.

You understand that not every­one will stop instructing others and just allow the Tao to unfold, but you can be an observer, watching others tap into their power by centering themselves.

Cultivate your distinctive, natural self by allowing your fundamental nature to shine by not imposing judgments on yourself that were forced by others. Remind your­self that you don’t have to do anything: You don’t have to be better than anyone else and you don’t have to win.

Expect to see the distinctive nature of others by remaining silent. If you delay just a minute or two before you interfere in someone else’s business, you’re on your way to allowing those around you to find their anchor of the universe within themselves.

Today’s Tao:

Copy the following “The Tao does nothing, but leaves nothing undone.” Memorize these words then go or a walk for half an hour and take note of their truth. The air, clouds, sky, grass, flowers and wind, nothing natural that you see is undone.

38.Living Within Your Own Nature

This verse tells you that your nature is to be good because you came from the Tao, which is goodness. But when you’re trying to be good, your essential nature becomes out of action. In your attempt to be good, moral, or obedient, you lose sight of your Tao nature. Nature is good without knowing it.

Live in your basic nature by denying artificial principles of goodness, fairness, rites, and laws. Artificial goodness is an attempt to live by not being “bad,” so you allow others to decide where you fit in on a goodness scale.

Affirm: I am of the Tao, a piece of God, and I need no human-made device to confirm it.

Goodness and God-ness are one, and I trust whom I am and will act from this perspective. I am staying with this truth and not what is false.
Abandon old-fashioned familial and cultural customs.

Peacefully affirm: I am free to live, trusting in the eternal Tao. I do not have to be as my ancestors were. I relinquish ancient rituals that no longer work or that perpetuates separation or enmity.

Today’s Tao:
Spend a day purposely choosing to notice one of God’s crea­tures, such as a dog or a spider. They can teach you much about trusting your inner nature.

39.Living Wholeness

Wholeness has roots in humility and when humility suggests our wholeness, we live the reality that we’re parts of the whole. When you’re cooperative and looking for signs of oneness, you’ll begin to see and feel the interconnectedness of everything.

Each seemingly individual part of a whole is potentially unsafe if it doesn’t work in harmony.

Work on your relationship with the planet. This means respecting the environment in every way by living in an Earth-friendly man­ner as a part of its oneness, support conservation, recycle trash.

Drive an environmentally friendly car, or better yet, walk in peace to as many places as possible.

Change the way you think of yourself from being separate to seeing yourself in all that you meet.

Today’s Tao:

Walk today for half an hour and think in wholeness terms with all that you come across. See yourself in those you might otherwise have judged, including the very old, very young, obese, disabled, or indigent.

Remind yourself; I originated from the same place as these people.

40.Living by Returning and Yielding

This verse asks you to die while alive. You do this by appreciating that you’re one of the 10,000 things that have materialized in the world of form.

n order to live out your destiny as a piece of the originating Tao, you must discard your ego and go back to spirit, or you can wait until your body dies and make your return trip at that time.

Keep an eye on your direction, highlighting returning and yielding. For example, resolving to exercise or eat more nutritious foods is a step tak­ing you back to the well-being from which you originated.

Surrender! By recognizing that your little ego does nothing and that the Tao creates everything, including you.

Today’s Tao:

Strategically place a picture of a yield sign, use this as a reminder for you to return to the Tao. At least once each day, rather than continuing a quarrel, yield on the spot.

In the midst of talking about your own success, stop and become an instant listener.

41.Living Beyond Appearances

As you choose to live the Tao each day, what happens with­in and around you will be different from what it appears to be. A person in the Tao knows that inner peace is power and becomes a great scholar who attentively works to live in harmony with the Tao even though it remains obscure.

Be diligent and at all times practice a few of these insights each day.
The Tao truth is un-provable in physical terms. It is hidden permanently and it cannot be named, so accept this as a fact.

When you change the way you view your world, you’ll see a kingdom beyond the appearance of darkness, difficulty, weakness, indifference, and death.

Today’s Tao:

Spend an hour with a child today and take notes regarding your impressions of the wisdom behind such so-called childish im­pulses and swear to be a kid again as often as possible.

42.Living by Melting into Harmony

This verse strengthens the idea that blending these seemingly opposing forces is the way to achieve harmony and reminds you of the things that you probably think cause suffering and suggests that hunger or feeling insignificant are high on the list.

But then he says that reaching har­mony in terms of the Tao implicates gaining by losing.

Keep in mind that violence disturbs the harmony of life and death. Change the way you view life to seeing a picture that’s free of violence and melts into har­mony as you live and die.

Today’s Tao:

Think of one person who may have wronged you at some time in your life and spend a day putting all thoughts of revenge aside, and instead feel forgiveness and love for that individual.

Notice how different your body feels when you have no violent thoughts.

43.Living Softly

In this verse, Lao-Tze invites you to change the way you view hardness. Consider how water flows and how the gentle water compares to the solid stone and marble it’s capable of carving through.

When you apply this to your life, tasks are simplified, performance level increased and your softness over­rides the hardness of others.

Establish a soft, non-action style in your life and let go of your inner drive to push ahead. The irony of this is that you will do better than when you tried so hard.

Further your desires to flow freely in your imagination. As you let softness be part of the picture of your life, the hard way will soften.

Today’s Tao:

Have a day of silence, just observe and see if you can be in a state of softness devoid of need to tell yourself or anyone else what to do.

44.Living by Knowing When to Stop

Knowing when to stop guides you to your essential self, where you no longer need fame and possessions. This verse begs you to know when to stop. When you give away attachment to things or ways of being, you’ll experience more contentment and see the fruits of wealth and love.

Make your connection to the Tao your top priority.

Affirm: “The number one priority in my life is my relationship with my Source or being.”

Practice knowing when to stop and alert yourself to knowing when it’s a good time to stop de­manding, chasing, talking, working, eating, walking, playing sleeping, striving, shop­ping, complaining, and so on.

Today’s Tao:

Choose an area of your life to practice releasing an attachment by make a decision when to stop. For example, avoid buy­ing anything that’s not on your list. You can also put this into practice by giving something away.

45.Living Beyond Superficialities

Here, however, Lao-Tze is ask­ing you to go beyond superficialities and to notice the still and tranquil invisible space within everything. Your previous way of thinking showed you a world full of imperfections.

This verse tells us that what appears to be imperfect has perfection, and what appears empty and false has a deep spiritual truth behind it. When you stop judging solely on looks, you oddly enough become a means.

See flaws as perfect, even if your ego-mind cannot grasp this and allow yourself to be perfect, even with all of your seeming flaws.

Today’s Tao:

List of ten things you consider imperfect, twisted, or stupid and take one at a time and elicit the feeling in your body that’s attached to that item.

Observe this sensation and hold in your thoughts from a viewpoint of loving permission. Do this for as long as it feels good, allowing the “Tao now!” to he present.

46.Living Peacefully

This verse invites you to find a more calm and self-satisfying way of knowing success. When your need to acquire more starts to weaken, your new views will change the world you’ve known.

When connected to the Tao, the animals fertilize the fields; when cut off from it, the beautiful creatures are bred for war.

Practice gratitude and contentment every day by saying thanking for the opportunity, which you have to live in contentment and be at one with your nature and choose to be an instrument of peace.

Today’s Tao:

Set aside time to make a conscious effort to send peaceful en­ergy to someone or some group whom you consider the enemy Then literally send anything that feels acceptable to you, such as a flower, a book, or a letter.

47.Living by Being

Here it is suggested that we should live by being instead of trying and that you can see and do more by not looking out the window.

There is an analogy here between this and the beating of our hearts. Your heart continues to beat away, even while you sleep, without your conscious attention.

Begin the process of trusting your heart and appreciating its continual silent thumping, let its being there a regular reminder of the Tao at work.

Trust in your “sense of knowing,” which is always with you and get in touch with it by practicing meditation.

Today’s Tao:

Find or make a picture of a heart, and spend time today reflecting on it as a reminder of the Tao naturally at work within your chest cavity.

Sometime during the day, allow yourself to be guided by the Tao to do something creative that comes from within, for example, painting or writing a poem, utilize this magic of the Tao often in all areas of your life.

48.Living by Decreasing

Our modern society believes that the more you accumulate, the more value you have as a human being. This verse asks you to change the way you look at this idea and benefit by decreasing your reliance upon things as opposed to increasing.

The Tao is about wisdom, which involves letting go of information, knowledge, possessions and living in harmony.

When you seriously think about this notion and alter the way you look at accumulation, you’ll know that you can never truly own anything.

See the value in subtraction, or “daily diminishing,” By consciously decreasing your need to buy more things. There’s a great deal of pleasure to be found in knowing that you can live peacefully without being dependent upon how much you have in your life.

Look for joy in the natural world, rather than seeking satisfaction in ownership.

Today’s Tao:

Let go of five items that you have in your pos­session, putting them somewhere so that others might find them. Then, choose something that has some particular value to you and give it away.

49.Living Beyond Judgment

Here we are expected to change the way we view virtually everyone on the planet and are invited to explore that peaceful world.

A good place is to start with is your self and see how you judge your behavior as good or bad. When you move away from judging, you exist in harmony with the Tao that excludes no one and has no thoughts of divisions and loyalties

Change the way you look at yourself and change the way you look at other people. It is only conditioning that causes you to look at things the way you do. Use the Sanskrit word, Namaste, it means, “I honor the place in you where we are all one.”

Today’s Tao:

Spend a day looking for chances to practice kind­ness in situations that usually incite judgment.

50.Living as an Immortal

Here Lao-Tze asks you to change the way you look at your mortality. The Tao teaches that death is of no consequence and that doesn’t need to be consciously struggled with or fear.

By altering the way you see death, you can know that you are a spiritual being having an impermanent human experience, rather than the other way around.

Create affirmations to remind yourself that no one dies. Affirm that you can never be harmed or destroyed, for you are not your body and stay connected to this reality.

In your imagination, Die while you’re alive, consider the death of your physical shell and imagine it lying there lifeless, and notice how you, the wit­ness, are not identified with this corpse.

Now bring that same awareness to your body as it gets up and goes about its everyday jobs. Nothing could harm your human form when it was dead, and nothing can harm you now because you are not that body.

Today’s Tao:

Picture yourself immune to harm by creating your own imagined picture of danger, hang on to this image of yourself as incapable of being harmed despite of what goes on in your body.

51.Living by Hidden Virtue

This passage encourages you to consciously live by hidden virtue, which almost certainly means changing many of the ways you view your role in the grand scheme of things and seeing that it’s down to you how you choose to live your life.

Practice feeling safe and protected and know that this doesn’t/t come from anything that you might possess. Trust in the Tao and feel safe in the force, which remains hidden.

Remember also that the Tao produces, it does not possess, be like the Tao.

Today’s Tao:

Today, let go of thinking, and discover the comprehensive nature of the mind. Let go of prejudice and notions, and understand how things really are. Let go of having to control others, and learn how capable they really are.

52.Living by Returning to the Mother

Here we are told of the value and importance in realizing that your life is more than just a linear experience occurring in time and space. You need to understand that you have the capacity to enjoy this mysterious beginning before your physical ending.

To board this return trip to your eternal Mother spend time with the maternal part of yourself, and seek clarity by observing the Tao in the small and the large.

Practice giving up rigidity, and instead developing elasticity to expand your strength.

Open mouth-spirit escapes (speaking to others). Closed mouth-spirit connection excellent! Listen for longer periods; stop-giving advice, gossiping and meddling to be like the eternal Mother whose only voice is silence.

Seeing the smallest mystery reveals the grandest mystery. No longer to you see anything as inferior, ordinary or unwanted anymore.

Today’s Tao:

Dedicate a day for investigating the smallest forms of life that you can find. Watch a spider make a web or a sand crab scuttling along the beach. Take an imaginary trip through your insides, investigating the life forms that reside in your intestines and in your bloodstream.

Meditate on the Mother giving birth these little bacteria in order for you to exist.

53.Living Honorably

Despite all our modern day technology, the words that Lao-tzu wrote 2,500 years ago still apply.

Regrettably, we’re far removed from walking the Great Way, for we persist in seeing great divisions, instead of a sense of unified oneness. “This is not the Tao.” And you need to change the way you view your world.

Make compassion the essential basis of your personal philosophy. “Walk in the Great Way” by doing charity work or backing candidates for public office who represent compassion And promise to make a difference each throughout your life,

Today’s Tao:

Opening your heart in compassion when you see someone less privileged than yourself, of this daily and silently bless them rather than a thought of scorn or ridicule. Do not rejoice about dead; send them a silent prayer of compassion.

54.Living as If your Life Makes a Difference

In this verse, you’re urged to see yourself as the Tao itself instead of one inconsequential individual among billions of people.

Those who were unconscious of their Tao nature will notice the distinction, and those who were aware-but not living as if their lives were of consequence will be attracted and begin changing.

Realize how much your life matters and that everything you think extends outwards And a silent bless­ing or thought of love toward others contains a vibration that will be felt all the way through the cosmos.

Today’s Tao:

Dedicate a day to offering kind thoughts and acts toward your family, community, country, and the world.

55.Living by Letting Go

This verse wants you to realize that what you call luck isn’t something that haphazardly happens, it’s yours for life when you choose to live by letting go and with harmony.

You attract the supportive power of the Tao when you let go of the need to control your life. Changing your thoughts changes your life and fortunes.

Visualize yourself as indestructible by removing the image of your physical body and replacing it the part of you that’s’ as continual as a spirit or a thought.

Change the way you look at your possibility of becoming a lucky person. Affirm: “I am open to allowing what needs to happen. I trust luck to guide me.”

Today’s Tao:

Spend a week charting incidents of “things working out” without your having to control or “make” them happen. This will mean deliberately choosing situations where you restrain your auto­matic impulse to control the outcome.

Calm down when you want to tense up, and trust in as many situations as you can. Notice how changing the way you think has changed your life.

56.Living by Silent Knowing

You have this place of silent knowing within you right now and in this verse Lao-tzu is calling you to live in the highest state from this place. It is deep within you and can’t be communicated to any one else.

As a result, you might want to alter your thinking about whom you think are wise or learned. It is not the persuasive speak­ers with a good command of the language, but according to Lao-tzu it’s the exact opposite that is true.

Block all the passages! Talking to persuade others in fact says more about your need to be correct than their need to hear what you have to say! Instead of trying to influence others, keep quiet … just take pleasure in that deeply gratifying inner awareness.

Use the acronym BUSS to remember the four directives of this verse.

Blunt your sharpness.
Untie your knots.
Soften your glare.
Settle your dust.

Today’s Tao:

Spend as long as you like practicing not giving unwelcome advice.

57.Living Without Authoritarianism

The essential message here is to allow rather than meddle. Allowing is quite often the highest form of leadership and the more controlling any system is, the more outlaws will appear.

When you change the way you view the need for rules, family members are inclined to make decisions founded on what’s best for all and sundry rather than themselves.

Practice the art of permitting yourself and go where you are automatically guided to go.

Affirm: “I am free to be myself I do not have to live by any­one else’s rules, and I release the need for laws to regulate my behavior.”

Practice the art of allowing others and instead of saying no, consider the ramifications of saying nothing and just observing.

Today’s Tao:

Spend time doing something that you’ve never done before. Find time to close your personal rule book and recognize that you’ve set limits for yourself that keep you from new and intensifying experiences.

58.Living Untroubled by Good or Bad Fortune

All things on our planet are constantly moving. This verse of the Tao Te Ching lays emphasis on there being another way to see the world, one that virtually guarantees that you won’t be bothered by good or bad fortune. This is achieved by focusing on the unchanging Tao.

See wholeness in place of good or bad fortune and when bad fortune feels so troublesome that you can’t get unstuck; see good fortune leaning on it.

Today’s Tao:

Today notice what aspects of life fall into the categories of “fortunate” or “unfortunate.” Make two lists and then explore each of them when you won’t be disturbed.

Allow yourself to either feel each one physically or see it as an image that shows itself to you. Without trying to change it in any way, let yourself to observe the subject with your eyes closed.

59.Living by Thrift and Moderation

Living in thrift and moderation means you are in harmony with the world via your charitable nature. Rather than repeatedly urging, showing the way, giving orders, setting down rules, and insisting obedience, it’s important to be a leader who accrues a ware­house full of virtue by living in harmony with the Tao.

When you have this to give away, you will, as you would expect interfere less.

Gather as much virtue as you possibly can by being charitable.

Practice moderating your ego and change the way you look at life. See yourself as someone who gives rather than gathers. When you curb your demands and use only what you and your family need, you’ll gather virtue points

Today’s Tao:

Imagine how the Divine Source works to maintain the creation cycles of life, and do five things that match up to it. For example secretly give a gift to someone in need.

60.Living with Immunity to Evil

Your work in this verse is to change the way you view the presence of evil in your personal world and the entire planet. To do this you need to acquire an inner awareness that evil simply can’t touch you if you’re centered within the shield of the Tao.

If you live in harmony with the Great Way and refuse to have harmful thoughts toward yourself or others, then the powers of evil and wrongdoing will be useless.

Bolster your resistance to negativity by controlling yourself in the midst of noxious thinking. Notice when you have judgmental thoughts that could be considered harmful for yourself or others. Affirm: “I deserve and anticipate receiving only Divine love.

This is what I attract.

Affirm: I send loving, kind thoughts to all and trust that this love will help them see the folly of their hatred.

Declare yourself immune to evil by visualizing a protective shield surrounding you and guarding you against what’s perceived as evil in the world. This shield only allows energy harmonized with the Tao to come through.

Today’s Tao:

Always respond with a kind, loving response when you feel threatened by evil and then retreat to a silent and peaceful knowing that you’ve begun the process of immunizing yourself from harm.

Draw near the universe with the Tao in your heart rather than defensively acting in response.

61.Living by Remaining Low

We are have been taught to and are expected to respect those who make the most money and collect the most material objects. This verse of the Tao Te Ching invites us to take another look at these beliefs and speaks of the advantages of leading by remaining low.

This wisdom can be applied to the business world or anyone you meet by revising the idea that towering above others is the way to get ahead.

Alternatively see the value of living as if you can win trust and friendship through a receptivity and stillness.

Reassess your personal view of what constitutes strength and know that when you stay low enough and stay calm, you will create trust and friendship.

Imitate those whose greatest impact on humanity used the least violent methods.

Today’s Tao:

In a moment of crisis, silently say “Think of me”, to an image in your mind of the person who won you over by bending down and remaining low. You will instantly find your way.

62.Living in the Treasure- house of the Tao

Great rulers and the wisest among us have access to a special place to retreat and meditate for guidance and commune with the sacred Source of everything.

We all have access to such a space in the Tao and it contains the treasure of the good man and somewhere where the bad man can go to be forgiven.

Practice seeing the door of the treasure-house opening to you by seeing yourself as a Divine creation of the eternal Tao and the entrance to a sacred space always on hand for you.

Be forgiving, and non judgmental, when you see blameworthy or evil-minded ways and treat yourself in the same way by allowing the pain to be felt and absolving.

Today’s Tao:

Decide to help one person today, just take a few minutes to meditate on the principles of this verse; do not mention the Tao Te Ching or this book. Send love instead of anger.

Whatever you do, your inspiration is to help that man or woman unlock the door to his or her treasure house by offering keys in the form of your own Tao-centered thoughts and behaviors.

63.Living Without Difficulties

Here we are told that there’s no such thing as difficulty when you live in the present moment, doing only what you can right now. Lao-Tzu’s message is, “See simplicity in the complicated … do great things while they are still small.”

So look at your thoughts about what you call the troubles in your life. Can you shift to thinking of every task as not only controllable, but easy and small as well?

Look for the simplicity in what you call difficult by seeing that in this moment, it’s not hard and think small by only considering what can be accomplished today, disregarding the overall picture.

Today’s Tao:

Take some time today to concentrate on the main challenge in your life. Break down whatever it is to one thing that can be done today, right in this moment.

Disregard the big picture and simply do what you can now and let everything else fade.

Be in the now.

See how doing the Tao at this moment brings big results by strangely enough staying small and simple.

64.Living by Being Here and Now

This verse teaches that every goal is possible from here. This is particularly applicable to problems that are overwhelming. When you change the way you think about them, your new and unique point of view will cause the enormity of the things before you to diminish.

One step at a time, so instead of taking over and controlling others or trying to do everything himself, the disciple of the Tao finds a way to deal with problems before they happen, and before they become chaotic. Lao-tzu is encouraging us all to do the same.

There are three steps to enlightenment that most people go through:

• Through suffering because the big problems of your life have weighed you down.
• By being in the present moment.
• Acting to prevent difficulties before they occur, this is the way of the Tao.

Remind yourself of the inherent value in practicing the most enduring line from the entire Tao Te Ching: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

Become a master anticipator by becoming conscious of preventing instead of waiting for challenges to materialize and use this method in all areas of your life.

Today’s Tao:

For today take one habit you to break and just for today with no promises about tomorrow or the future, take a single step to rise above this habit. Tomorrow morning you can decide if you will continue for the next day.

65.Living by Staying Simple-hearted

Here we are told that our job is to help others no that they don’t know because if they believe they have knowledge, they will never find there way back to their own Tao nature.

The best way to do this is by showing other how to live from the Tao point of view by being willing to own up that you don’t know what’s best for them, nor do you even know with any amount of sureness how your own life should go.

Let them to see a man or woman who’s unassuming, lives serenely in the cycles of life, and stays simple-hearted by surrendering your ego to connect to your Tao energy.

Be willing to confidently say to those in your charge, “I don’t know.”
Learn to keep your life simple and uncomplicated.

Today’s Tao:

Today let go of your label of “parent,” “supervisor,” or “boss,” and put yourself on an equal footing with others. Consider yourself the same as one of those you lead and imagine that you are he or she, just for today.

66.Living by Emulating the Sea

The Tao is perceived as a natural energy. Lao-tzu taught that the Tao only asks you to live in harmony with nature.

Change the way you think about yourself and others by looking to the massive life giving sea, which is patient, compliant, and lower than the streams that flow to it.

Imitate this in yourself by suspending your ego and letting go the need to control anyone. The people you’ve been assigned to lead will be pulled to you in the watercourse way of the Tao’s natural flow.

Never assume that you know what’s best Even if you’re older, wiser, and richer than others and have more authority and strength than they do, never assume that you know what’s best for anyone. Alternatively picture yourself as the great ocean that permits and encourages the smaller streams to come to you.

Remain a servant by seeing yourself as someone who’s on this planet to help others.

Today’s Tao:

Use today to lead by serving instead of giving orders. Allow others to flow to you instead of interfering and telling them what to do.

67.Living by the Three Treasures

This verse shows you the three things you require for a Tao-styled life of success:

Mercy is the wide term used here for the first treasure, which includes such as compassion, charity, good-heartedness, kindness and love. Lao-tzu says that this important treasure is what true valor stems from, not from an uncaring attitude.

Frugality, which includes economy, simplicity moderation, and thrift, The less attached you are to your possessions, the easier it is to be bighearted; the more you hold on to it, the more you feel you need, and you worry less about the welfare of others.

Humility or not always trying to be number one, Lao-tzu says, from this comes true leadership that radiates Tao energy.

Live in harmony with the countless expressions of the Tao by Extending your mercy and compassion toward every form of life, including you, and radiate love and respect for all, you’ll be united with the Tao.

See the hidden strengths of simplicity and humbleness in those whom you may have before criticized as being feeble or hopeless leaders.

Today’s Tao:

Today, converse with someone and practice the three treasures by being economic with your words. Take time to listen, which utilizes all three treasures at one time.

68.Living by Cooperating

Here you are asked think again what you believe you have to do to be a winner. To us this usually implies being competitive and go getting. Lao-tzu asks you to change this view by representing “the virtue of non-competition.”

Who can there be to defeat if you see yourself in everyone? Lao-tzu asks that you follow his advice and choose to live by cooperating.

Declare that you’re not going to fight.

Practice seeing yourself in everyone else

Whenever you say or do something that’s detrimental to some­one you love, you’re doing something to harm yourself and if you should also extend this awareness to all of humanity.

Today’s Tao:

Today affirm that you will consider your opponent an extension of yourself in your next competitive encounter and vow to mentally send that person love, surround him or her in light, and pray that he or she will perform at the highest level.

69.Living Without Enemies

The author’s vision based on this verse is a world where all being are bonded together. Is this possible?

Lao-tzu directed that if war ever is foreseeable, one should practice defense rather than offense and should never start hostilities, but acknowledge in the heat of battle that the battle itself is something to grieve about.

If there is no notion of “enemy,” and a heart is filled with empathy, one stays synchronized with the Tao. The presence of fighting, whether verbal or physical, indicates that contact with the Tao has been lost.

Refuse to think of anyone as your adversary and Affirm: “I have no enemies, I may disagree strongly with some people and may need to defend myself but I will not think of them as opponents.

Vow to never start a fight, stay on the defensive instead of making the first move.

Today’s Tao:

Write out these words found in Anne Frank’s diary, written as she was being sought after by the Nazis: “ … in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart – I can feel the suffer­ings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right.”

Put this somewhere for everyone in your family to see.

70.Living a God-Realized Life

In this verse the author seems to think Lao-Tzu was musing and saying, “I think like God thinks; I speak as God, the creator of the universe, would speak; and therefore I act in accordance with these God-realized principles.”

We are urged to do the same by just surrendering your troublesome ego and allowing the life-sustaining Tao energy to guide you.

Know the Tao Te Ching and just remember your holiness is a piece of the Tao.

See God everywhere and Practice saying “Thank You, God, for everything.” This is the way to God realization.

Today’s Tao:

Today, be like a sage who dresses plainly, wear no makeup, jewelry or fancy clothes and notice how irrelevant the attention paid how we dress and look seems.

71.Living without Sickness

In this verse the author believes Lao-tzu seems to be saying that one must in reality become ill in order to prevent illness and that suffering with illness just isn’t an option when one lives in harmony with the Tao.

Illness represents a physical manifestation of non-Tao thinking. It is an expression of fear, anger, impatience or any other ego-driven desire.

When you refuse to participate in such folly and look at poor health and are determined that you will not think in a way that can bring this about and stay centered in the natural well being of the Tao, the result will be perfect health.

Have a happy mind and you will have a happy body.

Examine your habits to see if they are distancing you from well-being.

Today’s Tao:

Today really listen and trust the messages your body sends you and spend some time listening to what your mind tells you about those signals.

Present your mind to the prospect that the body is signaling a request that you can grant, such as break to walk along the beach, for instance.

Develop the Tao-centered content mind, which will not consider thoughts of sickness.

72.Living with Awe and Acceptance

Without the combination of awe and acceptance you are not likely to see the presence of the Tao. This verse also asks that you accept yourself and your individual fears and Lao-tzu tells you to elude self-limits, believe your body as a perfect creation, and let your life to unfold in harmony with its own nature.

Change your worldview to one of awe and bewilderment and See the miraculous in everything.

Focus on loving the life and the body you have and affirm: “My body is perfect, born at precisely the right time, and this is the perfect age now. I accept myself as I am. I accept my role in the perfection or this universe at this time. I surrender to the natural course army body’s destiny.”

Today’s Tao:

Today, take a look at your life and List five natural occurrences that you take for granted. Reflect on each of these and allowing them into your consciousness.

73.Living in Heavens Net

In this you’re encouraged to be a reverent, cautious being under the net of heaven. Reckless bravery: death – Cautious bravery: life. The more you hurry, the less you get done.

Don’t see caution as a weakness or an expression of fear but as a way to step back and allow events to un­fold naturally.

Be an active listener instead of trying to control others by speaking loudly and frequently.

Today’s Tao:

Today take a non-action walk for an hour and notice how all that is under the net of heaven is working perfectly.

74.Living with No Fear of Death

Tao scholars have talked of death as a place of oneness in which time, space, and all of the 10,000 things stop having any meaning, the death of our human identity.

There’s still someone beneath the external layers, though, so when you know and comprehend whom that formless someone is, your fear of dying will dissolve. Lao-tzu promises: “If you are not afraid of dying, there is nothing you cannot achieve.”

In the second part, we are told how at our time of birth everything we need for our journey was given to us and this includes the time of your death. We are told this means, as all is pre-determined, killing is not our job.
Discontinue fearing your death because The Tao is in it all-birth, life, and death.
Examine the ways you kill by imposing your beliefs on others.

Today’s Tao:

In your meditation today practice dying while still alive by leaving your body and floating above the world. Do this for just a few minutes daily. Keep in mind that you are not this body but a piece of the infinite Tao, never changing and never dying.

75.Living by Demanding Little

If you believe that asking more of your children or co-workers, will increase productivity you are in discord with the Lao-tzu teachings for this verse.

As he suggests the opposite is true and that it is better to demand little and leave people alone as much as possible otherwise people lose their spirit.

Don’t overtax yourself as this can lead to a loss of spirit.Trust those you’re assigned to lead and don’t continually monitor them.

Today’s Tao:

Take a fifteen-minute and clear your mind. Do the same with your children or someone at work. Put your arm around them and ask them to go for a short walk, just doing nothing but being together in nature.

76.Living by Bending

Here, Lao-tzu asks us to change our viewpoint of strength by observing how the most solid and sturdy things in the natural world tend to be soft, gentle, and even weak. If we see strength as being hard, inflexible, and firm, he invites us to change that view. Life, according to Lao-tzu, is defined as soft and flexible.

Be strong by bending like the palm trees in the middle of a hurricane. It is their assumed weakness that makes them strong enough to survive.
Examine your unbendable attitudes. Such as the death penalty and legalization of certain drugs etc. Now, make an effort to walk in the shoes of those who have opposite opinions.

Today’s Tao:

Exercise: Stand with your feet together, raise your hands above your head, and stretch as high as you possibly can. Now bend to the right as far as you can go, stretching for sixty seconds. Then return to an upright position and do the same on your left side. All the while, see yourself as flexible, supple, and able to bend in harmony with the Tao.

77.Living by Offering the Surplus

Here we are told to observe nature and if deficiencies exist, not to carry on depleting what’s already scarce. We are asked to think about the surpluses we can put back into circulation to lessen deficiencies that exist elsewhere in our world.

Reduce surplus by giving it away to someone that needs it, don’t sell it but give it away and don’t seek recognition for charitable acts.
Be an instrument of increasing by giving a portion of your earnings to a charitable cause and if you can’t offer money, say a silent blessing for those less fortunate.

Today’s Tao:

Make a point of getting rid of some of your excesses, something someone else will be able to make use of.

78.Living like Water

The element is closer to being Tao-like than anything else in this world. Water is as mysterious to us as the Tao is. It is elusive until you stop grasping and let your hand relax and be one with it. Illogically, you get it by letting go.

Lao-tzu advises imitating this element in all of its inexplicable and mysterious ways, even if it seems opposite to what your intellect and teaching are telling you.

Overcome the firm parts of your life by being soft and act just like water.
Water seems to be something you could easily overpower; yet with enough passage of time, the flexible quality of water will triumph.

Water is so soft that it can’t be harmed, spoiled, or ruined as it simply returns to its Source to be recycled again and again.

Change the way you look at strength versus weakness and see that the labels of rigid, hard, powerful, cocksure, and dominant aren’t characteristics of strength at all.

In fact, these traits will lead you to be suppressed and overwhelmed by softness, or what you’ve called weakness. Change your viewpoint, and watch your world change.

Be soft like water and flow everywhere you find an opening, instead of trying to control with your strength.

Today’s Tao:

Meditation: “You have the same qualities as water. Allow your soft, weak, yielding; fluid self to enter places where before you were excluded because of your partiality to be solid and hard. Flow softly into the lives of those with whom you feel conflicted:

Picture yourself entering their private inner selves, seeing perhaps for the first time what they’re experiencing. Keep this image of yourself as gently coursing water, and watch how your relationships change.”

79.Living without Resentments

This verse asks you to change the way you hold resentments following a squabble or an outright quarrel. Resentments live on and increase because you are not willing to end the dispute by offering love, and genuine forgiveness.

Lao-tzu says, “Someone must risk returning injury with kindness, or antagonism will never turn to goodwill. “There is a time for hostility and a time for peace.”

After a quarrel, always end on love, no matter what! Do this right now by sending out these “true virtue” thoughts to any resentment you are carrying at this time.

Practice giving rather than taking when you are in the middle of a disagreement or argument and You can decrease your quarreling time to almost zero with this procedure.

Today’s Tao:

Silently recite the following words from the Prayer of Saint Francis:
“Where there is injury, (let me bring) pardon.”

80.Living Your Own Utopia

Here, Lao-tzu makes an argument for an ideal society where there is no conflict and harmoniz­ing with nature is practiced. There may be weapons but they are never used.

This verse is offering you an escape from the cruel cycle of hatred, murder, war, and subsequent cooperation before the next cycle of violence erupts.

Adopt new at­titudes and behaviors to help you change the way you think about your modern life. Practice extreme appreciation of the things you usually take for granted, like family members, home comforts, and living by the sea, garden, clothes etc.

See paradise all around you so change your believe that you need to travel and be worldly in order to live a satisfying life. Paradise is where you are when you feel the Tao in every cubic inch of space.

Today’s Tao:

Devote today to food! Be thankful for the mysterious intelligence that created food for your health and pleasure, and say a prayer for Going grocery shopping, cooking and planning a dinner party etc and see these See these food connections as a part of the never-ending Tao cycle, and being in your own utopia.

81.Living Without Accumulating

You came from no-thing-ness. The place of your beginning had no things; the place of your return is one of no things. Therefore, you are being invited to replace the gathering of more stuff with the commemoration of your true essence. You are the Tao.

Quit gathering points for being right! Change ego’s need to be right by using the Tao-based statement, “You’re right about that.” It will make your life so much more peaceful.

Reduce yourself down to zero or no-thing-ness. Observe what you amass in the world of things. From this outlook, you will find that nothing can ever in fact be real in such a world.

Practice this exercise whenever you’re feeling involved with your possessions or your point.

Today’s Tao:

Copy the following words by hand and study them. Practice each day to energize the flow of Tao in your life.

“The more he gives to others, the greater his abundance”

???? Get Dr. Wayne Dyer’s Change Your Thoughts Change Your Life Audio Book – Click Here To Get It FREE

.